Time & Time Again & Again
by CanalaveCoast
Summary: A collection of drabbles. Ikari;; Paul, Dawn;;
1. This Time

Short drabble I did due to my current mood. x.X Hope you like my ramblings anyways. xD

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This Time;;

Dawn Hikari was pissed. off. For the hundredth time since she had met the infamous Paul Shinji, the flipping, cold hearted retard of a trainer couldn't remember her name. The tension had been building since the two had first laid eyes on each other moments after their first exchange in Oreburgh. Though never as evident as the obvious clash between rivals that Ash and Paul held, the heartless trainer had created quite the strong opponent in Dawn and she was tired of him. He'd laughed at her; looked down on her; walked all over her countless times in the past with only a glance or two here and a comment, once.

This time Dawn was done though. This time she was going to pummel the idiot trainer into the ground. This time there was no Brock to hold her back. This time he didn't even see it coming.

In a single bound the blue haired trainer had leapt and came crashing straight into the disgusting form that was Paul and sent the trainer off balance. He had staggered merely a step and only because it had been completely unexpected. In response, the amethyst irises of his eyes simply widened. Ramming her tiny form into him again, Dawn pushed Paul another step back and began to beat at him with her small fists hard on the head. In all her excessive energy and beating, the girl toppled to the ground but still refused to relent. She kicked, scratched and bit at him as best she could with her hands pinned to the ground by his iron clad grasp and her legs securely held under his ugly foot. Paul simply stood silently whilst holding her as the raging girl struggled against him; neither spoke a word as the anger and spite ran its course and subsided a moment later.

Once the girl had calmed enough to sit still and only glare, the trainer released her and took a step back. He waited calmly for the sting of curse words that would have sprung from his lips had she been him. They never did come as the blue haired coordinator sat huffily crossing her arms refusing to admit defeat in silence. As the trainer turned and began to walk away, a small moment of understand connected his train of thought to hers and he understood why she'd reacted that way. Paul didn't care nor did he change a thing thereafter but he did now understand.


	2. The Colour Purple

Nothing special...

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The Colour Purple;;

Dawn Hikari sat up in her sleeping bag quite annoyed. It was 3:40 am according to her poketch and the girl hadn't slept a wink all night. She didn't know why, but she was bored, irritated and distressed beyond belief. At dinner, she'd been snapping at Ash and Brock like crazy then turned apathetic all of a sudden. Since then, she'd been struggling to get over the mood swing quite unsuccessfully. Pulling out her Pokedex, the girl started fiddling with it but something happened that the thing started to react stupidly. Angered, Dawn pushed a few buttons and growled wanting to smash it to the ground as the contraption refused to respond. Tossing the device with a clatter back into her bag, the coordinator huffily crossed her arms.

With an audible groan, Dawn swung back irritated and shut her eyes. She then suddenly let out a screech as her head came, not into contact with a pillow, but rather the hard ground and then the real pillow fell on her face muffling her cry. Snatching the pillow away and glaring up at the offensive person that had done this, Dawn was surprised - and irked - to find herself gazing at Paul.

"Blah, blah, blah…" was all that came out of his mouth to Dawn. Her eyes had narrowed and the girl turned over in her sleeping bag putting her pillow over her head. A sharp toe came to poke her in the ribs but Dawn only squirmed away and ignored. Whatever he wanted, she didn't want to hear it. A great rap to the head suddenly greeted her a moment later and the girl shot up fuming to glare.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked angrily. Paul's face was passive as both Ash and Brock started awake beside them.

"Stop thinking about the colour purple and go to sleep already." the boy repeated his statement from before. Dawn blushed scarlet red from anger and puffed out her cheeks - aghast. Paul was already walking away though when she was finally recovered so the girl didn't have a moment to say anything, but she _was_ surprised that he'd known she wasn't sleeping well and that she'd been in a bad humour since who knows when. The thing that scared her most of all was that he knew exactly what had provoked it when she hadn't had a clue.


	3. Hero

....

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Hero;;

The blazing light of an X-Scissor flew through the air as a Toxicroak leapt from beside its trainer to the place where a young coordinator had fallen alongside her fainted pokemon. The sounds and flashes of battle resounded around her as the oncoming strike neared. A scream slipped from the girl's lips unheard to the coordinator and she shut her eyes just managing to turn away and await the impact. In almost the same instant another trainer had turned from where he'd been battling and, with a most strained and angered look, ordered his pokemon to block it.

The power of the pokemon's move surged through the area as the black and yellow striped creature did as it was told. Constant clashing back and forth between the grunts in this mess of a maze within which walls they were entrapped and the looming threat of Commander Saturn had cornered the two teens in a most undesirable chaos. More and more flashes and sounds of combat were heard as the three grunts and commander continued to impound upon the one trainer who now stood just beside the fallen coordinator ordering his pokemon harshly and repeatedly in fast movements to block here, move there. The tired pokemon continued on as the strain began to weaken it but not once did it falter.

This side of him, the girl had never before seen. She'd only ever known the trainer to be a complete jerk but this - this brave, noble side - she'd never imagined could exist within a body that was so wholeheartedly enveloped by a soul with no heart. "ThunderPunch, Electabuzz!" Yet he continued on never once letting a single harm come to the girl that he so equally held disdain for.


	4. Frostier

...

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Frostier;;

Often, Paul had heard of idiotic men in the world who started off cold hearted and merciless then fell in love and had some drastically cliché change in heart that made them the most well loved idols in romantic literature. He'd heard it and was sickened to a significant point beyond disgust by the abhorring idea. It was for this very reason that his shell had doubled when she'd come along. She was built from head to toe like the kind of heroine in a novel who would try and soften up a cold hearted jerk like him. To bad the girl never did try though.

Yes, he'd upset her at the Oreburgh gym and often ended up unintentionally provoking some negative response but the girl had never seemed to take any particular interest in him. Paul couldn't have cared less even if she had; the only thing that irked him was the tiny idea that he mayn't quite come off as cold enough to spark any interest. Over time, due to this notion, the doubled shield had thickened and soon become completely impenetrable to the point where Paul was so apathetic and merciless that not even a lost girl in the woods could provoke any sort of feelings other than spite and scorn.

She managed to find her own way out though and never once took a single step at any attempt in melting or chipping the shield he bore. The two parted ways in no better terms than those in which they'd met. Even after Sinnoh, the shield remained and built up until the day came when there was nothing left under that to shield. That was the day she came around curiously.


	5. Triumph

...

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Triumph;;

Paul had made a bet. He'd let the gambling, cocky, conceited and over confident side of himself brush his rival's slight ability improvements aside and done the very thing he so often tried to avoid doing. He himself had created a situation where interaction, speaking and socializing where necessary lest he lose a certain battle. Yes, the same day Paul Shinji becomes a coordinator, Dawn Hikari becomes a cold jack ass and hell freezes over - he'd lose to Ash. Too bad only one of the former statements had the appearance of being true.

It had been the slightest moment of distraction in which the boy had said no rather than yes. Had the idiot breeder inquired a split second later the status of his remaining pokemon, Paul would have reined triumphant as he rightfully was and the bet would have been won. Unluckily even the sharpest of the sharp had lapses where they momentarily became unaware or distracted.

"You've not actually lost." she'd said quietly. He had ignored though and brought forth from the depth of his pockets the coveted item that had been bet on. It was a thing of uselessness to the cold hearted trainer so it didn't much matter to him what became of it. What was Paul to do with a coordinator seal anyway? He'd found it on the ground after some other idiot had dropped it and gifting it to another idiot seemed the best way of ridding himself of such an annoyance.

As the seal dropped into her smooth, outstretched palm, the girl's face was straight and lacking its usual cheerfulness. She felt like it had been unfair. She felt he didn't deserve to be thought the loser. If he would tell her he didn't care would she even believe? It was too much of a bother to find out and so Paul turned away to continue his journey as if never once interrupted.

Just as the trainer was leaving the clearing though, he tossed the final pokeball into the air releasing the pokemon he'd accidentally denied during that moment of distraction. Fit as a fiddle, it stretched out and began walking beside its trainer leaving the trio behind with the real truth of who had been victorious. Still, the seal was never reclaimed and, ultimately, that tiny act had won the girl her next contest. Too bad he would never bother enough to inquire and therefore lost the chance to know.


	6. Wishes

...

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Wishes;;

Perhaps Paul wasn't as cold hearted as first imagined. He might just be infrequently amused and finds silly things pointless when a real goal could be so much closer when other things are ignored. He vents frustrations through over working his pokemon and though compassion may be buried their under all the disappointment, it's somber and asleep, hidden well.

He might just not like to talk. He doesn't often say nasty things to her and the way he mocks the rival could easily be taken as friendly advice given in the wrong tone. Never once had the boy actually snapped at either of them. The only time she'd ever heard him snap at all was to his brother that time at the Battle Pyramid and that was due to embarrassment reasons where anyone would have done the same. Had he changed even more so for the better since then?

Maybe he was just misunderstood; shy, determined and constantly frustrated with life - they might be valid reasons why he showed no evident compassion. Perhaps, but couldn't it also be described as wishful thinking?


	7. Gone

**``Gone**

Paul's footsteps crunched quietly on the gravel underfoot as he retreated from the fuming figure of one coordinator he'd recently become rather well acquainted with. They'd fought again... about the same thing, again... but this time it was the last. He'd thrown in the towel and cut the ties. Everything was done. He'd made note; he'd recognized. Paul had known that one more fight about anything - everything… and he'd give it all up to be alone again. He wasn't going to hold any slight, twisted attraction to the peppy blue coordinator above all his goals for his pokemon and himself.

At the beginning, when they'd fought, he'd found it amusing how she thought she could control him or tell him what to do and think he'd go along with it. But as time began to wear on and instances began to gnaw at Paul's nerves, the boy had put his foot down. He'd thrown the base rules down and expected her to follow them. Evidently he should have known better that to think her anything but headstrong for he was flatly rejected at any attempts of being civil, or, at what level of civility Paul could show. That had ended all masochistic attraction withstanding the boy had been undergoing. He didn't care enough for that slight pleasure beneath all the layers of intense negativity that she'd brought him to throw away everything else he valued. It was over and done, and Paul Shinji was gone.


End file.
